Question

You go shopping with a friend and end up buying a shirt for $23.90, a pair of pants for $34.50 and some socks for $3.65. If sales tax is 7.5%, what is your total sales tax amount for all three items?

Answer 1

ok add the numbers together then devide

Answer 2

usually the store will add up the purchases and then figure the tax:
(23.90+34.50+3.65)*0.075

of course, you could figure the tax on each item separately and then just add up the tax amounts:
23.90*0.075 + 34.50*0.075 + 3.65*0.075

The distributive property says that these give the same result.